Part six of a seven-part series.
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Contrary to public and private opinion at the time, including that of the New York media along with amusement park buffs who never visited the park, Freedomland U.S.A. was not an entertainment flop.
Freedomland was visited by about two million people during its first year. This is a considerable achievement for the time, considering that the season was short as the park had to close from October to April due to the harsh northeast winters. Attendance was strong during subsequent years, but it is believed that actual numbers often were downplayed by management.
Problems at Freedomland
Despite its popularity, the park did experience several stressful growing pains during its first two years.
On June 25, 1960, a week after the official opening, a stagecoach overturned in the Great Plains section of the park and the accident injured 10 people. Three of the victims were hospitalized, including one visitor who sustained serious injuries. The park initially denied any responsibility until a visitor publicly released a photograph that showed the accident. Eventually, the injured parties filed lawsuits against the park.
A month later, on August 28, 1960, the front office was robbed of $28,836 by several armed men who escaped by boat along Eastchester Creek, a nearby waterway. They were caught two weeks later and jailed the following year.
During the second year, some members of park management already determined that the public had grown tired of the history theme. By the end of the second season, Freedomland, reportedly, was $8 million in debt.
Changes at Freedomland
To help boost attendance, management added non-historic attractions such as thrill rides, skill games and midway attractions. It also added The Moon Bowl, which was described in the previous article in this series, to attract top music talent along with older teenagers and younger adults to the new outdoor dance floor. These changes resulted in a failed $150,000 lawsuit from one park sponsor, Benjamin Moore & Co., that claimed the park failed to keep its commitment to maintain an historical theme.
To save money, management eventually hired an advertising and promotion consultant who slashed weekly payroll by 20 percent. This plan, however, backfired as it also cut back on the entertainment value by reducing the spontaneous cowboy shootouts, bank robberies and some of the other features that complemented the park’s historic attractions. One beloved park character, Digger O’Toole, the undertaker from Fort Cavalry who handed out business cards sponsored by King Korn Stamps, never again was seen in the park.
Along with all these changes, concessionaires began to grumble that they were paying more per square foot in rent than they could recover as profit. One food vendor complained that management never could settle on a plan that would attract people to the park and that it constantly confused the public by changing attractions and admission prices.
In an article in the Long Island daily newspaper Newsday shortly after the park closed, a woman complained that her family, which included three children, had spent too much money ($30) on its one trip to the park. A Long Island teenager, who was quoted in the same article, opted for Coney Island over Freedomland’s attractions. He said Freedomland was for younger children and that education should be reserved for school.
Bogus World's Fair Excuse
The success of the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair, which attracted tens of millions of people to Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, often is cited to have caused a decline in attendance at Freedomland. However, Freedomland historian Bob Mangels, who has documented the park’s history on a DVD, long has claimed that the World’s Fair did not contribute to the park’s demise. He said that the popularity of the World’s Fair only gave the owners a plausible excuse to scale back Freedomland's attractions during 1964 and begin to implement their original plan to build a housing development on the site.
Competition from a world's fair, which was a known possibility even before Freedomland was announced on May 25, 1959, did not seem to concern park management during the first few years of the park's operation. The fair was scheduled to operate for only two years and it did close during October 1965. Since most families attended the fair only a few times during each year, it did not pull the crowds away from the many other New York attractions that included Freedomland. However, Freedomland, for reasons never explained, did not reopen after the 1964 season.
The weather and the 1964 riots in the Harlem section of northern Manhattan also have been blamed for the failure of Freedomland. Unlike California’s Disneyland, Freedomland, according to management, could not enjoy year-round operation to generate significant revenue. Park management then cited the summer riots for a decrease in tourism to New York City and a decline in attendance. However, the riots did not affect attendance at the World’s Fair.
This is the sixth of a series of articles about Freedomland U.S.A. that describes the creation of the park, the sponsors and attractions, and its planned demise even before its fabulous opening day. The fifth article in this series about Freedomland U.S.A. took a close look at the entertainment venue designed for the park that drew name acts and large crowds. The seventh and last article will look at the closing of the park to build a public housing project and shopping center. Visit Freedomland U.S.A. today on Facebook.
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